Yo, Kansas City! It's time to rock the vote!

Onemilliontinytinyjesuses
A million wee messiahs? That's one for nearly every beat the box-headed, robe-wearing duo crams into some of its tracks, all jackhammer drum machines and melodies alternately fragile and warped. Conceived in 1997 and with a handful of albums and film scores to its credit, Onemilliontinytinyjesuses narrowly escapes classification as IDM (intelligent dance music), thanks to the inclusion of titles like "Mr. Snot" and "Pooping on Your Briefcase" on its untitled release from earlier this year. The faithful can expect another full-length, Commit to Nothing, this fall. Amen. (www.onemilliontinytinyjesuses.com)

Pat Nice
Calling Pat Nice a veteran of the house scene is a woeful understatement. This DJ played his first gig in 1990, rose to the top of local rave culture (becoming a mentor to the boys who founded DeepFix Records), and then went on to become quite possibly the area's most sought-after spinner. His stamp here is so big, no one seems to have noticed that Nice moved to Chicago more than a year ago. In the meantime, while honing his hip-hop skills, Nice has claimed a spot on the relatively short list of DJs who actually produce and release records, building up an impressive list of his own singles, EPs and remixes that are finding their way into the collections of the country's top DJs. In short, Nice is way more than a DJ -- he's practically an industry.

Best Female Vocalist
Shay Estes
The Silver Shore, Shay Estes' moody dark-wave outfit, played its final show in June, closing one of local music's most lamentably abbreviated chapters. Fans of Estes' seductively husky vocals can still see her at jazz joints such as Jardine's, belting out torch songs with a piano-and-percussion backing band. Her standards-heavy set lists, which include Nina Simone and Tom Jones, showcase her playfully dramatic stage presence and expressive delivery. Estes' daring renditions might forever replace the originals as the default reference point in listeners' memory banks. (www.myspace.com/shayestes)

Kristen May (Veda)

See New Act.

Kirsten Paludan (Olympic Size)
Kirsten Paludan has one of the purest, most unaffected voices around -- a voice that got her a guest spot on Melrose Place a few years back. A veteran of the stage and the thankless wedding-singer circuit, she's also been in Bellweather (on indefinite hiatus) and an early incarnation of the Stella Link. Paludan now croons with the acoustic Metropolitans and with Olympic Size, a gloomy, bedroomy combo whose first album, Set Free, came out earlier this year and gained the band a following among the indie scene's many sleepwalkers and night owls. Paludan is due to release a solo album shortly -- a preview listen at the Pitch offices revealed an autumnal cabaret of seductive balladry.

Kim Anderson (Flee the Seen)
See Punk.

Heidi Phillips (Abileen)
Abileen's Heidi Phillips has been a local star since her band Frogpond hit it fairly big in the '90s. (Interesting factoid: Another amphibious band, the Toadies, was all the rage in Abilene, Texas, about the same time Frogpond took off.) Phillips has said that her fast rise and fall with Frogpond left her a bit burned out, and that's almost how her new band sounds -- but it's a romantic, diner-by-the-desert-highway kind of burned out. With Abileen, the coffee-voiced Phillips continues to steam, brewing up a moody, rambling product of the parched prairie. (www.abileenmusic.com)

Best Folk/ Singer-Songwriter
Arthur Dodge
Hail a taxi in Lawrence and there's a chance you'll find yourself in the company of one of the area's most prolific singer-songwriters. The release of Room #4 last year, the cab-driving Arthur Dodge's fourth with his backing band, the Horsefeathers, further cemented his rep for crafting the sort of songs that could be born only from late nights and odd fares. (www.arthurdodge.com)

Kasey Rausch
Kasey Rausch is notorious for writing songs that inspire her audiences to bust out and sing along (something they do often), and she has the talent to make local spots such as Parkville seem just as romantic as her own East Texas roots. Still, she's no mere folkie. Rausch also deserves props as a fan, an organizer and a constantly enthusiastic presence who has worked far beyond her music to build an area folk scene that's more vibrant than it's been in 20 years. (www.kaseyrausch.com)

Forrest Whitlow
Even though his recent work has been closer to deranged, electric slacker rock, Forrest Whitlow is still best-known as the rather eccentric folk singer who brought his smooth tenor and finger-style acoustic from Kentucky to Westport a few years back and roped area freaks E. Clarke Wyatt and John Bersuch to form his backup band, the Crash. Speaking of which, Whitlow's Web site claims that the Crash is on hold "but will likely reconstitute itself in some unrecognizable form at a roller rink in the south of France on a random Friday in 2081." Just in time for this prolific songwriter's 478th album, we predict. (www.forrestwhitlow.com)